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R. W. FURNAS. STREET CLEANER.

No. 599,231. Patented Feb. 15,1898.

UNITED STATES I ROBERT IV. FURNAS, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

STREET-CLEANER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 599,231, dated February15, 1898. Application filed January 28, 1897. Serial No. 621,058. (Nomodel.)

To aj whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT W. FURNAs, of Indianapolis, county of Marion,and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and usefulStreet-Gleaner; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, in which like iigures refer to like parts.

My invention relates to a wheel-mounted scraper that is operated byhand. Immediately behind the scraper I place a box to receive the dirtwhich is gathered up by the scraper. After the box has become filled theworkman can easily transport the dirt to any point he desires. By thismeans he can dump the dirt he collects in a considerable territory atone place.

The device is a substitute for the handscraper now in use in citiesprovided especially with asphalt pavements. The purpose of thesehand-Scrapers is to gather up the droppings during the daytime, thestreet usually being cleaned or swept by a large sweeper at night. Thescraper which has heretofore been used, so far as I am aware, consistsof a sheet of metal with a handle extending rearward, whereby theworkman pushes the sheet of metal, scoop-like, forward on the surface ofthe street under the material he desires to remove, and when it becomesfilled withdirt, he pushes his scraper to one side of the street anddumps it beside the curb. If he does not dump it in this way at variousplaces along the street where he may happen to be when his scraper isfilled, he pushes it to some common place of du 1nping that he may haveon the street. After such a scraper is filled and is pushed on thestreet loaded it leaves a track of dirt in its path. These little pilesthat are thus gathered must be taken up by a wagon going from one pileto another until the great number of them has been removed, but wherethey have been dirt will still be left or considerable work will benecessary in addition to clean the street after the pile is removed. Itis obvious that with my device a large territory can be scraped withoutdumping, and the loadcan be transported where desired without any escapeof dirt. IVith this construction, toc, the workman is enabled to use awider scraper. Therefore the wagons and expense of taking up the pilesmade by the old scraper are avoided, and, furthermore, one man can cleana larger territory with this than with the old wheelless scraper.

Another feature of my invention consists in the means I show of removingthe dirt, after it has been scraped up on the scraper, into the dirt-boxbehind. This is done by a brush or brushes, the preferable arrangementbeing that shown herein.

Another invention is the striker, which is employed here to push thedirt which has been elevated by the brush off into the box.

These, together with the other features of :my invention, will be morefully understood from the accompanying drawings and the de scription andclaims following.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective of my street-cleaner. Fig. 2is a detail of the clutch for throwing the brush-shaft in and out ofgear. Fig. 3 is a central longitudinal vertical section of mystreet-cleaner.

In detail the construction which I consider preferable for carrying outthe features of my invention are as follows:

l is a dirt-box with its top open and its front side 2 not extending ashigh as the other sides. The two end pieces extend for some distanceforward of the side 2. A scraper 3 extends from the upper edge of theside 2 of the box down and forward beyond the front end of the endpieces of the box, as seen in Fig. 3. This scraper may be formed of onepiece or, as is shown here, of two pieces, a scraper-point 4 beingattached at the lower end and made somewhat iiexible. The advantage ofthis is that when the scraperpoint is worn out another may besubstituted. This scraper extends down to the ground or surface of thestreet when the device is in an operative position. The scraper isspherical when the brush device which I have here shown is used; but itmay be in any suitable form, so long as it permits the brush to elevatethe dirt on it.

The dirt-box and scraper are carried on wheels, preferably two. I showordinary bicycleewheels 5, one on each side, on the axles 6, with oneend carried by the box and the other by the bracket 7, which is securedto Any other well-'known means for the box.

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mounting the wheels may be adopted. The

y device should be so mounted that when it is i I have shown consists ofa handle 8, connect- Y on the part of the handle.

mdvement 1s very advantageous inasmuch as ingthe rear ends of thehandle-bars 9, which are pivoted at their front ends to the machine infront of the axle yof the wheels. vice shown they are pivoted at 10 andheld from downward movement by the block or stop 11 and from upwardmovementl by the spiral spring 12, placed between the handlebar and theplate or bracket 13. The spring permitssome freedom of movementvertically This freedom of it reduces the friction of the contact of thescraper with slight elevations in thesurface of the street., It makes iteasy to keep the scraper in proper contact with the street, and thatrenders the push of the device easy also.

In the forward extensions of the ends of the. box 1 I mount abrus-h-shaft 14. It is rotated by the sprocket-wheel 15 and thesprocket-chain 16, that is actuated by the sprocket-pinion 177',` formedon or secured to the wheel-hub. I have found it sufficient to drive thebrush-shaft from one side only. K

The brush 18 consists of along back with rather long fiber securedthereto, as shown in Fig. 1- It is. secured by the arms 19 to thebrush-shaft rigidly. The contact of the brush with the scraper is.adjusted by means of the bolts 20, that are adjustable in the slots 21in the arms 19. The brush should be so adjusted that its contact withthe scraper will be positive and yet easy.

The brush need not operate, for example, when one is taking the machineto work or is transporting a load' of dirt. In such case the connectionbetween the driving-wheel and brush shaft is thrown out of gear. Any

' clutch mechanism may be used for this, such as is shown in Fig. 2. Onthe hub of the sprocket-wheel 15 teeth are provided thatmay be engagedby the sliding sleeve or collar 22, having teeth to engage the teeth onthe sprocket-wheel. It is mounted on the shaft 14, so that it will notrotate independent of the shaft that is being held by a spline. In orderto operate this clutch, I use a clutch.- handle 23, that is pivoted tothe side of the 'box at 24 and extends back to the handle 8 of themachine.

In cleaning a street with this machine the workman pushes it, with thescraper, in con-4 tact with the surface of the street. The rotation ofthe wheels, supporting the machine by means of the mechanism I havedescribed,

In the decauses the brush 18 to rotate. l should be geared up so thatthe brush 18 would not rotate very rapidly. All that is necessary inthis regard is that the rotation of the brush shall not be so long as topermit too great an accumulation of dirt on the scraper. The brush inits revolution comes in contact with the front portion of the scraperand moves or pushes the dirt back and up on the scraper until it reachesthe top of the side 2 of the box, when the dirt falls over into the box.

To push the dirt off the brush and into the dirt-box, I providethefollowing means: On

each side of the dirt box or frame I secure astandard 25, from whoseupper ends I suspend a striker 26, consisting of an ordinary bar ormetal strip, secured at each end to an arm 27, which is fastened by astaple 28 at the upper end of the standards 25. The point of connectionbetween the arms 27 and the standards 25 should be substantially over orin front of the brush-shaft and the striker suspended therefrom looselyto the rear of the brush-shaft. When the brush is out of the way, thestriker will swing or drop down against the stops 32, so as to engagethe brush some time before it reaches the point of discharge, as seen inFig. 3. The length of the arms` 27 should be such that the striker willengage the upper part of the' brush fibers some time before the brushreaches the dischargepoint, and as the brush is gradually elevated it isobvious that the striker will push the dirt toward the outer ends of thebrush fibers and as the brush reaches the discharge-point will push thedirt off the brush and into the box, thus cleaning the brush bers andrelieving the brush of its load. As the rotation of the brush continuespast the vertical center the striker 26 will again drop down into thespace between the brush-shaft and discharge-point and against the stops32.

Any suitable means may be adopted for dumping the dirt 29. If thestandards 25 are strong enough, the` machine may be turned over anddumped like a cart. The means for dumpingI have shown here consists inhinging the rear side 30 of the dirt-box at the top and providing at thebottom a latch 3l to engage the bottom of the box. When the latch isreleased, the hinged side of the box can be turned backward and thehandle forced downward, so that the dirt will fall rearward and outuponthe ground.

Attention is called to the fact that this device is rendered moreeffective and capable of doing more and better work than thewheellessscraper, because the workman has no control over the pressureof the latter upon the street-surface, while with this machine he hassuch control over it that he can adjust such pressure or remove thescraper from the surface of the street entirely when desired. This isaccomplished by elevating or lowering the handle, so as to throw aportion or all of the weight on the wheels. This control of Such meansIOO IOS

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the scraper in action is due, primarily, to mounting it on wheels, and,secondarily, to the springs on the handle-bars and making thescraper-joint somewhat iiexible. The advantages arising from thiscontrol over the scraper are that it is easier to push, it can be madeto accommodate itself to the irregularities of the street-surface, andit can be lifted entirely from the street when necessary.

The springs on the handle-bars enable the scraper-point to movevertically to accommodate itself to slight elevations or depressionsWithout any corresponding vertical movement of the handle-8, for in usethe workman pushes against the handle S with his body, and then it doesnot move vertically, as the scraperpoint would. This feature alsoprevents a push that is too much upward from causing the'sc1aper-pointto catch on the street-surf face.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. A hand street-cleaner comprising a dirtbox, a pair of wheels tosupportthe dirtbox, a handle to propel the same7 a scraper extendingfrom the box forward in the arc of a circle down to the surface of thestreet,a brushshaft mounted in the framework at the center of the circleof curvature of such scraper, arms extending from such brush-shaft tothe scraper, a brush mounted on the ends of such arms, and meansconnected up with one of the wheels of the machine for rotating thebrush-shaft.

2. A hand street-cleaner comprising a dirtbox, a pair of wheels tosupport the dirt-box, a handle to propel the same, a scraper extendingfrom the box forward in the arc of a circle downto the surface ofthestreet, a brush so secured to the ends of said arms that its contactwith scraper can be adjusted, arms extending from such brush-shaft tothe scraper, a brush mounted on the ends of such arms,

and means connected with one of the Wheels of the machine for rotatingthe brush-shaft.

3. A hand street-cleaner comprising a dirtbox, a pair of Wheelssupporting the dirt-box, a handle to propel the same, a scraperextending from the front of the box down to the street-surface to gatherthe dirt, means for withdrawing the dirt that is scraped up from thescraper into the dirt-box behind, a clutch mechanism on the brush-shaftfor throwing it in and out of gear, and means extending from the handleof the machine to the clutch for operating it.

4i. In a street-cleaner, the combination with a brush to elevate thedirt, of a suspended striker, substantially as shown and described. 5.In a street-cleaner, a dirt-box, a scraper, a rotating brush to elevatethe dirt from the scraper into the box, and a striker pivotedeccentrically with the brush so that it will en gage the brush behindthe dirt as the brush approaches the discharge-point and push the dirtoff into the dirt-box.

6. In a street-cleaner, a Wheel-mounted v scraper, a handle pivoted atthe front portion of the machine, and a spring at the rear portion ofthe machine that permits the handle or scraper-point to have somevertical play.

7. In a street-cleaner, a wheel-supported scraper and dirt-box, a handleconsisting of bars pivoted near thefront portion of the machine, andconnected at the rear with a handpiece, a stop on the rear part of thebox to limit the downward movement of such bars, and a spring to limitthe upward movement thereof.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set' my hand this 15th day ofJanuary, 1897.

ROBERT W. FURNAS.

Witnesses:

V. H. LooKwooD, ZULA GREEN.

